Dawnstars Path
by Eviess Veralan
Summary: This story is centered on Dawnstar, the leader of one of the five clans. The five clans are new and the clan cats are trying to keep the clans alive without it all falling apart.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors, I just love the series.

**Prologue**

Hello. I'm Dawnstar. I'm the leader of DawnClan. DawnClan is also living by four other clans.

LightningClan strong and fearless even in the harshest of weather. Led by the the graceful and wise Lightningstar.

OceanClan, thrive and most comfortable living on a huge lake which connects to the ocean. Led by my littermate Oceanstar. She may be my littermate but I will not tolerate patrols from any clans stealing prey from DawnClan.

There is CloudClan. In the other clans, CloudClan cats are said to be air headed and arrogant. But also unfortunately cause a lot of trouble and conflict among the other clans. Their leader is Cloudstar who is easily angered but friendly toward DawnClan, most of the time.

And there is VolcanoClan, who is Cloudstars littermate, who hates CloudClan and Cloudstar with a passion and will do anything to aggravate them and Cloudstar. Led by Volcanostar the only male leader out of the five of us. We all live neighboring each other but if there is one thing you must know about these clans, it's that there is ALWAYS some sort of conflict, big or small.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Dawnstars yowl pierced the air "Everyone calm down. And sheath your claws. You should know not to fight at a gathering."

"Lightningstar called us thieves!" meowed a gray CloudClan warrior.

"No, I merely stated that prey was being stolen from our territory and that it will not be tolerated. There will be more patrols and any clan caught stealing prey during this leaf bare will be attacked and driven out of LightningClan territory." Meowed Lightningstar.

"Aw... Let them fight Dawnstar." said a dark gray tom " CloudClan could use a good beating."

"Come over here and say that Volcanostar" Cloudstar retorted, her white fur bristling. "EVERYONE STOP!" All five clans turned and looked at Redfern, an orange striped she-cat and also the DawnClan deputy. "A gathering is supposed to be a time where all five clans can meet in peace and share tongues. Not a time to rip each others fur off. Now let's all calm down and continue on this gathering without fighting. The way StarClan intended it to be." A black she-cat named Oceanstar meowed "Thank you Redfern." she turned her bright blue eyes toward the other clan cats. "In OceanClan we have had lots of fresh kill and we have two new apprentices, Riverpaw and Bluepaw." All five clans cheered "Riverpaw! Bluepaw!"

After the cheering subsided Cloudstar walked forward to speak, "Prey is in abundance in CloudClan. And one of our queens had a litter of kits named Ivykit, Larkkit, and Specklekit." then Cloudstar stepped down.

Volcanostar stepped forward with a mischievous look in his amber eyes,"In VolcanoClan the prey has been plentiful. And the intruders who were stealing prey didn't even show their faces." he said while looking at CloudClan.

A CloudClan warrior named Hazelfoot hissed "We are not thieves! We are honorable CloudClan warriors."

"Who deserved to be shredded..." mewed a VolcanoClan warrior. Meows of amusement arose from the VolcanoClan cats. Hazelfoot glared at him for a few seconds, then looked back toward Cloudstar.

"You say we should be shredded but you VolcanoClan warriors are too cowardly to try do it yourselves!" snapped Cloudstar. Meows of agreement arose from the CloudClan cats.

Then Lightningstar cut in "If you're going to rip each others fur out then wait until after the truce is over!" Then clouds covered the moon.

"Look! It's a sign that the gathering is over. It was great to see you all again but we must get back to camp." meowed Oceanstar with a look of relief. As CloudClan left they hissed and glared at the VolcanoClan cats. And the VolcanoClan cats smiled mischeievously at the CloudClan cats as if they were proud to have ruffled CloudClans fur.

"I can't believe they started fighting before I had the chance to speak." Lightningstar said with a hiss.

"StarClan must have felt that if the Gathering went on further, someone would have gotten hurt." Dawnstar meowed in an attempt to try to comfort the light gray tabby.

"I don't see why you're all surprised." Oceanstar chimed in. "I don't see how this Gathering thing will ever work if they don't at least try not to kill each other. It has almost become a tradition to split them up when they claw at each other."

"We should leave. See you all next gathering." Lightningstar dipped her head in respect and turned to her clan.

"She's right. We should go." said Oceanstar.

"May StarClan light your paths." said Dawnstar

LightningClan, OceanClan and DawnClan all left the Gathering and started their journey back to their camps.

Then when we returned to the DawnClan camp, we saw that the clan was eating fresh kill and sharing tongues. Then a she-cat with dark black stripes and a calico she-cat ran up to me and said "How was the gathering Dawnstar?"

"Hello Stripefur and Spottedpelt . A fight almost broke out. Redfern and I stopped it."

"Which Clans were fighting?" asked Stripefur.

"It was at first LightningClan and CloudClan, then CloudClan got angry toward VolcanoClan."

"That doesn't surprise me at all" meowed Spottedpelt.

"I'm surprised they havent killed each other yet." Dawnstar said with concern. Stripefur meowed "I'm tired so I'm going to rest so I can join the dawn patrol tomorrow."

"Good idea. I'll head for the warriors den for some sleep too." Then Spottedpelt and Stripefur padded off to the warriors den. Then a white she-cat padded over to me and Redfern. "I heard of the incident at the gathering. I can't believe Cloudstar would let herself lose her self control like that. A leader is supposed to be an example for her or his clan."

"Well Volcanostar didn't help by trying to aggravate her even more. They would have ripped each other to shreds." Dawnstar said.

Redfern meowed "To change the subject. How was the camp while we were gone Snowpelt?" "Great! The apprentices brought back loads of fresh kill and there were no signs of other clans on DawnClan territory." Snowpelt replied.

Dawnstar said "Great! I think I'll head to my den. Keeping Cloudstar and Volcanostar from ripping each others fur off was exhausting."

"Do you want to join the dawn patrol tomorrow?" Redfern asked.

"Yes." Dawnstar replied. Then Dawnstar padded to her den and saw that there was a piece of fresh kill left there by an apprentice. After Dawnstar gulped down the mouse. She curled up in her nest and fell asleep.

Dawnstar awoke the next morning to hear Redfern organizing the patrols. Then a striped apprentice entered her den.

"What are we going to learn today? Am I battle training or am I hunting for the clan?" "Actually Tigerpaw, Windflight needed some help gathering herbs for the medicine cat supplies." Dawnstar replied.

Tigerpaw said "Ok." then ran off to the medicine cat den.

Dawnstar stepped out of her den and saw that everyone in the clan was helping out with the daily duties. The medicine cat Windflight and Tigerpaw were leaving to gather herbs. Then Dawnstar went to join the dawn patrol. The dawn patrol consisted of Spottedpelt, Stripefur, Snowpelt, and Dawnstar. As the dawn patrol left the camp we patrolled the territory by OceanClan and we ran into a OceanClan patrol. Dawnstar recognized the light silver pelt of Mistyheart, the OceanClan deputy.

Then Mistyheart of OceanClan said "Greetings Dawnstar. Too bad CloudClan couldn't be shredded at the Gathering last night."

"Yeah too bad..." said Stripefur.

Then Snowpelt said "A clan being shredded is never a good thing!"

"When it is either VolcanoClan or CloudClan it is!" Meowed Stripefur. Then meows of laughter arose from warriors of both clans.

"We should get going" said Mistyheart.

"So should we" said Dawnstar. Then both clans continued on their dawn patrol. The rest of the patrol was quiet and we didn't run into any other clan patrols.

When we returned to camp, the patrol dispersed into the camp and started to share tongues with friends and littermates. Dawnstar sat under the Highbranch and thanked StarClan for the closest they will ever get to peace that the clans have experienced these past moons. Then a light tabby she cat walked over to her and said

"Hi Dawnstar. Is everything ok?"

Dawnstar said "Yes. Thanks Rosepetal."

"Do you want some company?" asked Rosepetal.

"Sure." said Dawnstar.

Then they started to talk. In the center of the clearing sat Snowpelt and Stripefur. Stripefur hissed at Snowpelt then lumbered off toward the warriors den.

"I wonder what about Snowpelt irritates Stripefur." Rosepetal said to Dawnstar.

"They just don't seem to get along at all do they?" replied Dawnstar.

Spottedpelt padded toward them and meowed

"Hey Rosepetal, Im leaving to go hunting. Do you want to join me?"

Rosepetal said "Um... Sure?" she turned to Dawnstar, "Are you coming?" she turned back to Spottedpelt. "The more the merrier right Spottedpelt?"

Spottedpelt nodded happily and said "Sure. C'mon Dawnstar."

"Of course, the clan could always use more prey." Dawnstar replied.

They hunted until sunset and they all caught some prey. After they placed the prey in the fresh kill pile, they each took a mouse from the fresh kill pile then left to beneath the High branch to eat. Rosepetal sat with Heatherfur and Redfern.

Dawnstar picked a mouse from the fresh kill and walked to the medicine cat den. In the medicine cat den she saw the light brown pelt of Windflight in the medicine cat den checking her supplies again.

"Windflight hope your hungry." said Dawnstar through a mouthful of mouse.

"Thanks Dawnstar."said Windflight without taking her gaze from the medicines and poultices.

"Your apprentice was a lot of help today."

"That's great. Maybe sometime soon you will get an apprentice of your own." said Dawnstar.

"I hope that time will come soon. Having a little noisy apprentice to help do the medicine cat duties would be helpful" Windflight said. Both cat purred with amusement. Then Windflight continued to check the stock of herbs and Dawnflight walked out to the clearing and to her den for a nap.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Dawnstar awoke the next morning to the sound of a queen scolding her kit. Dawnstar then walked to the apprentice den and saw Tigerpaw fast asleep. She said "Tigerpaw get up! I'm going to show you the clan borders today." Tigerpaw jumped out of his nest and said,

"Really? When can we leave?"

"Right now if you hurry."Dawnstar replied.

Then Dawnstar and Tigerpaw walked out of the camp entrance and headed to the VolcanoClan border. She went through the undergrowth quickly but the young apprentice kept her pace. When they finally made it to the border Dawnstar said

"This is the VolcanoClan border. DawnClan patrols this area more than others because VolcanoClan love to cause trouble with other clans, especially CloudClan."

"It smells yucky" said Tigerpaw as his nose crinkled from the stench.

"It smells very different from the other clans, so it should be hard to mistake the scent with that of another clan."

As they walked along the border, they saw a VolcanoClan patrol sprint toward the border to renew the scent markings.

"Are those VolcanoClan cats?" asked Tigerpaw.

"Yes. But be careful around them, they are born troublemakers." then they kept walking until they reached the CloudClan border.

"This is CloudClan. CloudClan cause a lot of trouble too, but mostly with LightningClan and VolcanoClan, but occasionally they fight with OceanClan." Dawnstar said. Tigerpaw said

"This clan doesn't smell as bad as VolcanoClan..."

"They probably think we smell bad too, Tigerpaw." said Dawnstar. Then they walked to the OceanClan border,

"This is the OceanClan border." Dawnstar said.

"Isn't Oceanstar your sister?" asked Tigerpaw.

"Yes she is."

"Do you miss having her around?"

"Yes. But my loyalty to my clan has to come first."

"Oh..." said Tigerpaw.

"Shall we move on to LightningClan territory?" asked Dawnstar.

"Sure!" said Tigerpaw.

They sprinted through the trees and undergrowth until they stood by the border of LightningClan.

"This is LightningClan."

"When can I go to a gathering?" asked Tigerpaw.

"Soon." said Dawnstar.

As they walked toward the camp entrance they heard Heatherfur yell

"Windflight! Cedarheart is injured!" "Bring him into the medicine cat den." said Windflight.

"What happened to him?"

"He was stalking a rabbit at the Tall Grassland and a rogue attacked him. We got there in time to save Cedarheart from the rogue, but the rogue got away." said Heatherfur. "He's going to be fine. But he will need to stay in he medicine den for a while so he can recover." said Windflight. Then they helped carry the scratched up Cedarheart to the medicine den. Tigerpaw said "I hope he is ok." Dawnstar said

"He is going to be fine. Windflight is a fine medicine cat. Besides, he wasn't bitten by the snake so he should be okay." I wonder what a rogue was doing so far into our territory. After Cedarheart was safely carried into the medicine cat den, Dawnstar and Tigerpaw picked up their fresh kill and dropped it into the fresh kill pile. Tigerpaw walked over to the other apprentices, and Dawnstar then took a mouse from the fresh kill pile and walked over to her den to eat. When she went back out into the camp, she saw Windflight eating by a tree near the medicine cat den. She walked over toward Windflight, Windflight said

"Cedarheart will be fine. He just needs time to recover."

Dawnstar said "Great. How are you doing?"

"I wouldn't mind having some help in the medicine den. Especially with leaf bare coming soon. There will be so much to do." said Windflight.

"When the right kit is born, you will make a exemplary mentor." said Dawnstar.

"Thank you." said Windflight.

Then a gray she-cat walked up to Windflight and said

"I heard what happened. Is Cedarheart okay?"

Windflight said "He will be fine Shadewhisker, but for now he just needs to rest."

"Great! Can he have visitors right now?" asked Shadewhisker.

"Not now. But maybe later." said Windflight.

"okay." said Shadewhisker as she walked away toward her littermate Nightfall.

"I wish I could stay to talk longer but I need to get back to Cedarheart to be sure he didn't move and make his injury worse." said Windflight.

Then Windflight walked back into her den, and Dawnstar walked over toward Rosepetal, Spottedpelt, and and started Then the apprentices walked up to Dawnstar and asked "Can we go to the next gathering? Please Please!"

"We will see. If you do really good on your training." said Dawnstar.

And then the apprentices ran to the fresh kill pile to get some fresh kill.

She let out a pur of amusement. Then Cedarheart and Shadewhisker walked out the camp entrance.

"Uh, Windflight. Is Cedarheart supposed to be leaving the camp?"

"No. Did he leave?"

"Yeah."

"That mouse brain! He still needs to heal from his attack wound."

"Well he has unfortunately been known to break rules." said Dawnstar. "I will have a word with him when he gets back."

"When will he ever learn?" said Windflight.

"I hope it doesn't cause his downfall later on in his life." said Dawnstar.

Dawnstar turned her head and saw Stripefur walk out the camp entrance.

"I wonder where Stripefur is going." she meowed.

"Maybe she is going to catch more prey for the fresh kill pile." suggested Windflight. "I'm going after him." said Dawnstar. Dawnstar sprinted out the camp entrance and followed their scent trail and found Shadewhisker searching around the reeds frantically.

"Shadepelt what are you looking for?"

"It's Cedarheart. He wanted to go off on his own, but I didn't want him to go alone and he said he had to make dirt. He took a long time and when I checked, he was gone." said Shadewhisker. "I'm so sorry Dawnstar. I should have known he would have tried to escape."

"It's not your fault. Cedarheart should have the sense to not go into the forest injured when there is a killer rogue on the loose." said Dawnstar.

_What in the name of StarClan is he thinking! One of these days, he's gonna die because of his irresponsibility._

Then Dawnstar caught Cedarhearts scent and started to follow it through the forest with Shadewhisker following right behind her. They followed the scent back to the Tall Grassland and saw Cedarheart looking for something in the grass.

"Cedarheart!" snapped Shadewhisker. "What are you doing here!"

Cedarheart whipped around and said "The rabbit is still here somewhere. It took a lot of energy to catch. I'm not going back to camp without it. It could feed several warriors."

"You didnt have to go. We could have sent another warrior to pick it up for you." meowed Shadewhisker.

"It's my catch, I want to take it back." said Cedarheart.

_Stupid tom_.

Then a strange cat leaped out of the bushes and attacked Cedarheart.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"You won't get away from Red Roulette this time flea bag." spat the rogue.

Then Dawnstar and Shadewhisker joined in to save Cedarheart. A cat slammed into Dawnstar pushing her out of the way.

"Stripefur? What are you doing!? The enemy is that rogue."

"Nope. Red Roulette and I are allies now. I am no longer a warrior of DawnClan." said Stripefur. "And another thing, it's not Stripefur anymore, it's Scar"

Then Scar joined the fight alongside Red Roulette. Dawnstar jumped back in and slammed Scar out of the way and raked her claws across Red Roulettes face while he was focused on Shadewhisker. Snowpelt, Spottedpelt and Redfern jumped out of the bushes and Red Roulette and Scar were outnumbered.

"Retreat! For now. But I can assure you that we will be back." spat Red Roulette as he jumped back into the bushes.

The DawnClan cats ran after him but they lost his scent over the fence of the Twolegplace.

"Shouldn't we still be able to scent him here? The stench of the monster is very strong but not strong enough to block out a cats scent trail." meowed Shadewhisker.

"Red Roulette knows this place better than we do." said Dawnstar. "He must have disguised his scent trail somehow so we couldnt find him."

_Wait! Did we leave Cedarheart lieing in the Tall Grassland injured?_

"Cedarheart!" Spottedpelt exclaimed as she whipped around toward the direction of the Tall Grasslands.

"Redfern and Shadewhisker. Can you help Shadewhisker haul Cedarheart back to camp?" asked Dawnstar.

Then Spottedpelt and Redfern turned off toward the Tall Grasslands.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey meet under the Tall Branch for a clan meeting."

Cats of all ages flooded into the clearing. Dawnstar cleared her throat and said.

"In the forest, we came across a rogue."

"And? It's not exactly the first time that a rogue has been spotted on our territory." said elders.

"This is no ordinary rogue. He has made allies, including Stripefur who has betrayed her clanmates and chose to join the rogue." said Dawnstar

Murmurs of shock arose from the clan cats.

Dawnstar continued, "He said his name was Red Roulette and Stripefur changed her name to Scar. To avoid any further injuries, I will be issuing the following rules. First, no one is to leave for a patrol on their own, I suggest a patrol of five or six cats so we can't be overwhelmed like Cedarheart was. Secondly, If you are on patrol and you see Red Roulette or any of his allies, give him the nice warm welcome that we give all murderous rogues."

"Gladly." said Heatherfur extending her claws into the dirt.

"And lastly, we only know of Red Roulette having one ally, Scar. But he may have more allies in the Twoleg place. So everyone please be careful." Dawnstar concluded.

Then Dawnstar jumped off the Tallbranch which ended the meeting. Mutters from the DawnClan cats about this strange rogue Red Roulette was all Dawnstar could hear until she walked over toward the apprentice den. She saw her apprentice gulping down a mouse. Dawnstar walked back over to the TallBranch then thought to herself how DawnClan could catch the shady cat before he becomes more powerful, if he even becomes powerful at all. As she thought about it she heard a noise of a cat walking up to her, she turned around and saw Redfern.

"I have organized the patrols for tomorrow." said Redfern.

"Thank you." meowed Dawnflight,

Redfern then turned around and walked to the other end of camp. Dawnflight stared up into the trees. _Why? What would Red Roulette possibly have to offer that would convince Stripefur to join him? Why would my good friend abandon us?_

She then thought, _Theres no use thinking about it now. It can't change what happened today, or the fact that Scar left her friends and family to join Red Roulette._

Dawnstar being tired from everything she had to do that day decided that it was time to go to sleep.

She found herself at the gathering place, a group of dozens of cats were arguing over which ideas would become the new rules for clan life. Dawn along with Volcano, Cloud, Lightning, and Ocean all became the elected leaders of five distinct clans to be known as DawnClan, VolcanoClan, CloudClan, LightningClan and OceanClan. At first Dawn thought the idea of splitting into different groups was mouse brained, until she remembered how well Volcano and Cloud got along. She was on a huge stone toward the center of the gathering area that they had already decided would be where the leaders would stand for what they would call "Gatherings". After the painful process of deciding on the rules, the leader jumped down to discuss ways to make the Clan thing work. In the middle of the DawnClan crowd, Dawn searched around for familiar faces. Spotted was talking to Stripe. Red and Snow were walking around the crowd of cats. Snow started to talk to Wind who was appointed as the medicine cat, and her mate Lion.

The question of whether or not medicine cats should be able to have a mate and possibly kits was debated. The lead argument against it, that it would mean that medicine cats would be more attached to their family members and more likely to save them if they're injured than another clan member, was made invalid by the fact that since all cats have family members such as parents and littermates, that they're attached to, taking away kits and mates from the medicine cats probably wouldn't help very much.

_To think that yesterday we were all just a huge group of cats struggling for survival. Now we are experimenting with an entirely new way of life that will affect our all the generations to come._

Dawn heard footsteps behind her and turned her head. Red meowed "We are heading home soon. Do you want to decide on the new clan names tonight when we return to camp or tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow. Everyone's had a long day today with all that has happened." Dawn replied.

"We are ready to leave when you are." said Red.

"Let's go home" said Dawn.

When DawnClan returned, everyone got to pick their full Clan names, Spotted picked Spottedpelt, Dawn temporarily picked Dawnflight, because when she would receive her nine lives from StarClan her name would be changed to Dawnstar.

Dawn decided that she would go to get her nine lives tomorrow. She was so tired that she wanted to collapse on the floor of her den, not caring to even make a moss nest to sleep in.

Dawnstar woke up with a jolt when she heard something crash at the other side of camp followed by a yowl of apology to any cats that were waken up by the noise. Dawnstar then realized that she had relived the first day of the clans all over again in her dream. It was still dark so Dawnstar climbed back into her moss nest and again fell asleep.


End file.
